Tax deal gains steam toward passage

A wave of new Democratic support Wednesday signaled that President Barack Obama’s deal to renew the Bush tax cuts would make it through Congress, as long as most Republicans lined up behind it as expected.

With Democrats in both chambers still angry about parts of the package, the administration scrambled to allay concerns and build momentum for the unusual deal with congressional Republicans reached this week. By the end of the day, the measure looked increasingly likely to pass, as Democrats stepped forward one by one to back it.

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced that he hopes to begin consideration of the bill as early as Thursday — a sign that the measure will receive a filibuster-proof majority.

And in the House, high-decibel liberal complaints were countered by a silent minority of Blue Dogs, New Democrats and even a handful of veteran liberals who said outright that they would vote for the bill or hinted strongly in private that they were leaning in that direction.

The one trump card for liberals is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who could follow the will of the majority of her caucus and keep the bill off the floor. There was no sign Wednesday that she would use that authority, and lawmakers and aides said that this reality was beginning to set in with the caucus and that anger was turning to acceptance in some corners.

The White House invested heavily in pushing the package, launching a campaign-style rollout of almost 20 new supporters, although many were mayors and governors who don’t have a vote. It was reminiscent of the delegate-by-delegate release of public endorsements during the 2008 Democratic presidential primary — a move taken as a sign both of concern about the administration’s support and of the proposal’s importance to the president.

Administration officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, fanned out across Washington to press their case, offering grim warnings about the consequences of doing nothing, possibly even a double-dip recession.

“If they don’t pass this bill in the next couple weeks, it will materially increase the risk that the economy would stall out, and we would have a double dip,” said National Economic Council Chairman Larry Summers at a White House briefing.

The economic message appeared to resonate with members, but the White House remained on defense.

At a meeting with Biden, House members received bar graphs intended to show that Republicans, not Democrats, got the raw deal. A blue bar labeled “What We Got” was about twice the size of the red one marked “What They Got.”

Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.) said lawmakers were making their frustrations clear.

“There’s a catharsis going on in there,” Farr said. “The vice president is on the defense.”

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CORRECTION: Corrected by: David Cohen @ 12/08/2010 10:37 PM
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story identified Sen. Blanche Lincoln as being from the wrong state. She's from Arkansas, not Arizona.